Rethinking Retail and Brands

Scott Bearse has 31 years of strategy and operations consulting experience as a director and partner or principal at Deloitte Consulting, Arthur Andersen, and Senn-Delaney Management Consultants. Most recently he served L Brands as the strategic advisor to the CEO in the capacity of chief stores officer. During his consulting career he held leadership positions in the retail and consumer business industries, MBA recruiting, and strategic client relationships. He served on the Global CB Editorial Board, the Eminence Board at Deloitte, and was a World Retail Awards Judge. He was a frequent speaker at industry events such as the National Retail Federation and the World Retail Congress. He is also the author of many articles on trends and insights into the industry. More important, he served more than 100 different clients, leading more than 300 consulting engagements and providing an extensive and diverse background from which to share experiences with our students.

Sherif Nasser’s research focuses on applying game theory to marketing problems, particularly those related to distribution channels and pricing. He joined Cornell University in 2015 and teaches at both the Johnson and the Dyson Schools. At Johnson, he taught Marketing Management, Marketing Research to MBA students. Currently he teaches Product and Brand Strategies to EMBA students. At Dyson, he teaches Marketing Management, and Innovation and New Product Management. Prior to joining Cornell, Nasser taught at Washington University in St Louis.

Professor Vishal Gaur is Emerson Professor of Manufacturing Management, and professor of operations, technology and information management at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. His research interests lie in the design and optimization of data-driven business models. His current research projects deal with econometric analysis and optimization in retailing, supply chains, and linking operations with financial performance of firms.

Gaur served as associate dean of MBA programs during 2014-2019. He teaches the MBA core course in operations management and MBA elective courses in retail operations and SQL. He has received numerous awards for his research and teaching: the Johnson Faculty Research Award in 2012-13; the Clifford H. Whitcomb Faculty Fellowship in 2010-11; the Johnson Core Faculty Award by the graduating classes of 2015, 2012, and 2008; the Johnson Cornell Tech Core Faculty Award by the graduating class of 2017; the Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Accomplishments Award by the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) in 2006; and honorable mention in the George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award Competition in 2001.

Dr. Mark Milstein is clinical professor of management and director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He conducts applied research in and oversees the center’s work on market and enterprise creation; business development; clean technology commercialization; and sustainable finance.

Dr. Milstein specializes in framing the world’s social and environmental challenges as unmet market needs which can be addressed effectively by the private sector through innovation and entrepreneurship, thereby allowing companies to achieve financial success by creatively addressing problems such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, and poverty. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation the S.C. Johnson Foundation, SEvEN, the World Bank, the University of Queensland, and the Water Resources Institute. Over the past decade, Milstein has worked with more than 100 firms across a range of industries, including renewable energy and carbon markets, life sciences and sustainable agriculture, consumables, food and nutrition, health care, tourism and hospitality management, as well as finance and international development.

Milstein’s work and perspectives have been featured in the New York Times, MSNBC, CNBC, Forbes, The Guardian, and GreenBiz. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of strategy, organizational change, and innovation related to business and sustainability. He also consults with a number of multinational firms, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and NGOs. He currently serves on the board of directors of Livelihood Basix International and as a board member for Johnson & Johnson’s Earthwards Program.

Glenn Altschuler received his PhD in American history from Cornell in 1976 and has been an administrator and teacher at the university since 1981.

He served as dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions from 1991-2020. From 2009-2013, Professor Altschuler also served as vice president for university relations, with responsibilities for articulating and overseeing strategies related to communications, government relations, and land grant affairs.  Professor Altschuler has been an animating force in the American Studies Program and has been a strong advocate on campus for high-quality teaching and advising. In 1998, he became the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies. For many years, his two-semester survey, Popular Culture in the United States 19900-Present, was one of the most popular courses at Cornell.

Glenn Altschuler is the author or coauthor of 11 books and about fifteen hundred essays and reviews. He is a regular contributor to The Hill and Psychology Today. The National Book Critics Circle has cited his work as “exemplary.” Psychology Today has featured it as “essential reading.” For four years he wrote a column for the Education Life section of The New York Times. From 2002 to 2005 he was a regular panelist on national and international affairs for the WCNY television program The Ivory Tower Half Hour. His political commentary appears on websites and newspapers in the United States and abroad.

Professor Clarence Lee is an assistant professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he is a Breazzano Family Sesquicentennial Fellow. Professor Lee’s research examines the drivers behind consumer adoption, usage, and purchase dynamics of digital goods, where he models consumer behavior using Bayesian statistics, structural econometrics, and machine learning techniques. Digital products and platforms, such as the ones produced by many Silicon Valley and NYC tech start-ups, are increasingly present in almost all consumer interactions. In such settings, understanding consumer choice and the dynamics of engagement and usage become critically important in order to acquire, serve, and retain consumers. He currently teaches Digital Marketing and Data Analytics & Modeling at both the Ithaca and Cornell Tech campuses.

Professor Lee received his doctorate from Harvard Business School and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, he has conducted nanotechnology research at IBM and space system design at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Stephen Sauer’s research and teaching activities focus on issues of leadership, team processes, entrepreneurship, and status and diversity in management. His work has been published in a number of academic journals including Leadership Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Human Resource Management. His research has also been featured in a variety of mainstream media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Forbes.com, and USA Today, among others.

His teaching experience includes courses in Leadership, Strategy, Negotiations, and Organizational Behavior at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and he has extensive experience leading executive education workshops and seminars for a number of major corporations. He is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement and Rev: Ithaca Startup Works and is a member of the teaching team for the NSF Innovation Corps national program.

Dr. Sauer graduated with a PhD in Management and Organizational Behavior from Cornell University, where he also earned an MBA and a Master’s in Business and Policy Administration. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to embarking on an academic career, he worked as an organizational change consultant and as a plant manager, after serving for seven years as an armored cavalry officer in the US Army.

Dan Hooker is a global retail and consumer packaged goods executive with broad experience across diverse business environments and formats, leading traditional food retail operations and merchandising, as well as product development, consumer and category analytics, sourcing and procurement, global trading, national sales and ecommerce. Dan is an outstanding strategist and general manager, and he has led the successful startup of multiple diverse businesses. Known for and recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on retailers’ proprietary brands, he has shaped clients’ programs across four continents and eight classes of trade. His passion is in helping companies see their unique DNA and positioning and creating actionable marketing and sales strategies essential for their success.

Most recently, Clay Ellis served as the VP of Strategy and Business Development for Trilliant Food and Nutrition, working closely with the CEO to identify and evaluate acquisition and partnership opportunities to accelerate the company’s growth plans.

Prior to Trilliant, Clay spent over eight years in various corporate leadership roles with Daymon Worldwide, Inc., a retail branding, consumer experience marketing, sourcing, and advisory services company. Clay led multiple teams and a wide range of strategic initiatives that have had a positive impact on multiple business areas, increasing revenue, improving efficiencies, and driving overall performance.

Prior to joining Daymon, Clay worked in management consulting for both Andersen and KPMG, consulting within their retail and CPG practices. In these roles, he designed and implemented several strategic initiatives, including process reengineering, customer service improvement, customer value segmentation, brand positioning, and technology and revenue growth projects. Prior to that, Clay was a customer solutions executive for Symphony/Information Resources, Inc. (IRi), responsible for the development and delivery of analytic, modeled, and technological marketing solutions for Fortune 100 CPG manufacturers.

Clay holds a Master’s from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, an M.S. in Organizational Psychology from Springfield College, and a B.A. from Macalester College. He lives in Cos Cob, CT, with his wife, two kids, and goldendoodle.

Amy is a results-oriented senior executive with over 27 years serving in senior strategy and thought leadership, business transformation, operations, sales, marketing (B2B and B2C), management consulting, and human resources roles with experience in food retail, consulting, energy and private equity industries. As a global leader with a unique background that combines strategic business and human resources leadership roles, she can observe enterprise-wide business and organizational dynamics to deliver success and get results. Amy excels at identifying and addressing core issues and delivering large-scale transformation results in turnaround, business integration, and growth situations.

Amy decided to leverage her background of both business and human resources strategy and execution work to launch SSP Transformative Solutions LLC in 2018 where she serves as the Founder and CEO. SSP – which is an acronym for Strategy, Structure and People – helps companies successfully develop and execute their strategy by ensuring strategic alignment between core constituents and by improving organizational health, operational alignment, productivity, and employee engagement. In addition to SSP, Amy has been a member of the Santa Energy Corporation Board of Directors since 2018 and serves as the Chair for the Compensation and Leadership Development Committee and works with the Board and CEO to set the strategic direction of the company.

Prior to SSP Transformative Solutions and her current board role, Amy served in senior leadership roles during her 15-year career at Daymon Worldwide Inc in both strategic business and human resources executive roles. Prior to Daymon, Amy’s career began in 1993 with Aldi Foods, Inc., a limited assortment chain, as a part of their Regional Supervisor team. She then worked as a marketing manager with Delray Farms, Inc. in 1995, a meat and produce retail chain, predominantly focused on ethnic marketing. Next, she pursued a career at Arthur Andersen from 1998 to 2000 in food retail operations and marketing consulting, specifically large, chain-wide store improvement rollout projects. Finally, from 2000 to 2001, she was a senior project manager with coolsavings.com inc., an Internet marketing company, where she worked with food retailers to develop their online couponing and marketing programs.

Amy is a graduate from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Marketing. Amy, her husband and three sons reside in Trumbull, CT.